Many microbial pathogens cause tremendous damage worldwide, in humans as well as in animals and crop plants. The continuing emergence of multiple-drug-resistant pathogen strains has necessitated finding new compounds that can be used in antimicrobial treatment. In general, two strategies exist for controlling pathogens, either kill the pathogen or attenuate its virulence such that it does not damage the host.
The strategy of attenuating bacterial virulence has the advantage of not creating selective pressure in favor of drug resistant strains. Antimicrobial compounds having virulence-attenuating but not cell-killing effects are expected to remain effective for longer periods of time than conventional antibiotics because of the lack of development of drug resistance. This approach has, however, suffered from a lack of specific targets for rational drug design.
Many bacteria use autoinducer ligands to monitor their population densities in a phenomenon called quorum sensing. At high cell densities, bacteria use this chemical signaling process to switch from a nomadic existence to that of multicellular community. This lifestyle switch is significant, as numerous pathogenic bacteria use quorum sensing to turn on virulence pathways and form drug-impervious communities called biofilms that are the basis of myriad chronic infections. Over 80% of bacterial infections in humans involve the formation of biofilms, as exemplified in lung infections by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is the primary cause of morbidity in cystic fibrosis patients. The treatment of infections by pathogens that form biofilms costs over $1 billion/year in the US alone.
The control of gene expression in response to cell density was first described in the marine luminous bacteria Vibrio fischeri and Vibrio harueyi. Quorum sensing bacteria synthesize, release, and respond to specific acyl-homoserine lactone (“AHL” or “HSL”) signaling molecules called autoinducers (“AI”) to control gene expression as a function of cell density. The classical quorum-sensing pathway comprises at least three components: a membrane associated receptor/transcription factor; a diffusible signal, the autoinducer; and a recognition site in the promoter region of the target gene. The autoinducer binds to the receptor causing the receptor/AI complex to be internalized. This, in turn, allows the receptor or receptor/AI complex to bind to the promoter region of the target gene or genes altering transcription and down-regulating or up-regulating gene expression. In most cases, this includes increased AI expression, thereby resulting in a cascade effect.
In recent years it has become apparent that many Gram-negative bacteria employ one or more quorum sensing systems. The quorum-sensing system is an attractive antibacterial target because it is not found in humans and is critical for high level bacterial virulence. Bacterial quorum sensing systems comprise AHL derivatives with different acyl side chains to regulate, in a cell-density dependent manner, a wide variety of physiological processes unique to the life-cycle of each microbe. These processes include: swarming, motility, biofilm formation, conjugation, bioluminescence and/or production of pigments, antibiotics and enzymes. For example, in P. aerugniosa quorum sensing pathways affect the expression of various exoenzymes, biofilm formation and cell-cell spacing. Other bacteria react to quorum sensing stimulation by expressing proteases and pectinases, expressing pili, entering stationary phase, emerging from lag phase and initiating cell division.
Biofilms are dense extracellular polymeric matrices in which the bacteria embed themselves. Biofilms allow bacteria to create a microenvironment that attaches the bacteria to the host surface and which contains excreted enzymes and other factors allowing the bacteria to evade host immune responses including antibodies and cellular immune responses. Such biofilms can also exclude antibiotics. Further, biofilms can be extremely resistant to removal and disinfection. For individuals suffering from cystic fibrosis, the formation of biofilms by P. aerugniosa is eventually fatal. Other bacteria also respond to quorum sensing signals by producing biofilms. Biofilms are inherent in dental plaques, and are found on surgical instruments, food processing and agriculture equipment and water treatment and power generating machinery and equipment.
Because of the virulence factors it triggers, the bacterial quorum-sensing system offers a novel target for use in modulating the virulence of pathogenic bacteria. All acyl-homoserine lactone quorum-sensing systems described to date, except that of V. harueyi, utilize AI synthases encoded by a gene homologous to luxI of V. fischeri. The response to the autoinducer is mediated by a transcriptional activator protein encoded by a gene homologous to luxR of V. fischeri (Bassler and Silverman, in Two Component Signal Transduction, Hoch et al., eds., Am. Soc. Microbiol. Washington D.C., pp. 431-435, 1995). Thus, the AHL quorum sensing system is present in a broad spectrum of pathogenic bacteria.
Gram-negative bacteria represent numerous relevant pathogens using quorum-sensing pathways. Besides P. aeruginosa, other quorum sensing bacteria include: Aeromonas hydrophila, A. salmonicida, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Burkholderia cepacia, Chromobacterium violaceum, Enterobacter agglomeran, Erwinia carotovora, E. chrysanthemi, Escherichia coli, Nitrosomas europaea, Obesumbacterium proteus, Pantoea stewartii, Pseudomonas aureofaciens, P. syringae, Ralstonia solanacearum, Rhisobium etli, R. leguminosarum, Rhodobacter sphaeroides, Serratia liguefaciens, S. marcescens, Vibrio anguillarum, V. fischeri, V. cholerae, Xenorhabdus nematophilus, Yersinia enterocolitica, Y. pestis, Y. pseudotuberculosis, Y. medievalis, and Y. ruckeri. Studies on the above listed bacteria indicate that, while the AI is generally an AHL compound, the genes affected as well as the phenotypes resulting from induction of the promoter differ according to the particular life cycle of each bacterium. Further, quorum sensing stimulation typically results in altered expression of multiple genes.
In addition to affecting multiple genes, some bacteria have multiple stages of quorum sensing response. In these bacteria, the different stages of quorum sensing may be induced by different ligand/receptor pairs and result in the expression of different sets of genes with similarly distinct phenotypes. For example, V. harueyi has two independent density sensing systems (Signaling Systems 1 and 2), and each is composed of a sensor-autoinducer pair. Signaling System 1 is composed of Sensor 1 and autoinducer 1 (AI-1), which is an N-4,3-hydroxybutanoy)-L-homoserine lactone (see Bassler et al., Mol. Microbiol. 9: 773-786, 1993). Signaling System 2 is composed of Sensor 2 and autoinducer 2 (AI-2) (Bassler et al., Mol. Microbiol. 13: 273-286, 1994). The structure of AI-2 heretofore has not been determined. Nor have the gene(s) involved in biosynthesis of AI-2 been identified. Signaling System 1 is a highly specific system proposed to be used for intra-species communication and Signaling System 2 appears to be less species-selective, and is hypothesized to be for inter-species communication (Bassler et al., J. Bacteriol. 179: 4043-4045, 1997). Other research indicates that V. cholerae also has two stages of quorum-sensing response. The first, limits biofilm production, so that the microbe can escape the biofilm once it has passed through harsh environments such as the host's stomach. The second stage initiates swarming once the bacterium have escaped the biofilm and multiplied in the gut; allowing the bacteria to leave the host and start the cycle again.
Because of the diversity of quorum sensing ligands and phenotypes, having a large number of quorum sensing compounds with which to probe diverse quorum sensing responses allows clinicians to identify ways to modulate or attenuate such responses. Further, if synthetic quorum sensing analogs are available, a greater diversity of responses maybe identified other than those resulting from the native ligand. In addition, developing a synthetic route to quorum sensing compounds provides a quick, more efficient way of producing analogs that does not rely on time-consuming techniques of molecular biology and is not based on the backbone of a native ligand. In addition, this strategy of attacking pathogenic bacteria via their quorum-sensing pathways provides methods of controlling bacterial virulence without resorting to antibiotics. This allows treatment of bacterial infections without inducing antibiotic resistance and the concomitant breeding of “superbugs”.
Recent studies in vivo have shown that the virulence of P. aeruginosa lacking one or more genes responsible for quorum sensing is attenuated in its ability to colonize and spread within the host. Similarly, elimination of the AHL synthase in several plant pathogenic bacteria has led to complete loss of infectivity (Beck von Bodman, 1998, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:7687-7692; Whitehead et al., 2001, Microbiol. Rev. 25:365-404). Transgenic plant systems engineered to express AHL synthases ectopically, to produce inducing levels of AHLs, have shifted the balance of host-microbe interactions in favor of disease resistance (Fray et al., 1999, Nat. Biotechnol. 171:1017-1020; Mae et al., 2001, Mol. Plant Microbe Interact. 14:1035-1042). It is thought that the production of endogenous AHL compounds by plants is the basis of varying degrees of disease resistance and susceptibility (Teplitski et al., 2000, Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 13:637-648). The halogenated furanones produced by some marine algae are known to have a pronounced effect suppressing marine biofouling. Some furanones have also been shown to affect V. cholerae by eliminating its ability to express genes associated with their virulence phase.
The current understanding is that, at some threshold AHL concentration (and related cell density), the AHL ligand (AI) will bind its cognate receptor, a LuxR-type protein, and activate the transcription of target genes involved in group behavior. (Fuqua, C.; Greenberg, E. P. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2002, 3, 685-695.) Blocking the binding of the endogenous AHL to its receptor with a non-native AHL is an attractive strategy for quorum sensing control.
In addition to their pathogenic costs, quorum sensing bacteria also have significant economic impact in industries other than health care. For example, in agriculture, various species of the genera Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium and Sinorhizobium are important plant symbionts helping legumes to fix nitrogen, while, species of the genera Erwinia, Xanthomonas and Pseudomonas are responsible for significant food-spoilage. Other industries, such as power generation, paper making and water treatment are subject to biofouling by many types of slime forming bacteria, such as Deinococcus geothermalis. 
Nevertheless, the pace of AHL analog discovery has been slow as the majority of AHLs synthesized to date have been generated in poor yields and low purities and screened on an ad hoc basis (Eberhard, A.; Schineller, J. B. Methods Enzymol. 2000, 305, 301-315; Reverchon, S.; Chantegrel, B.; Deshayes, C.; Doutheau, A.; Cotte-Pattat, N. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2002, 12, 1153-1157; Zhu, J.; Beaber, J. W.; More, M. I.; Fuqua, C.; Eberhard, A.; Winans, S. C. J. Bacteriol. 1998, 180, 5398-5405). Currently there are no antibacterial compounds that target the bacterial quorum sensing system to reduce bacterial virulence and increase susceptibility to bactericidal antibiotics. Therefore, new synthetic approaches are required for the generation of AHL analogs and the systematic evaluation of the effects of AHL ligand structure on quorum sensing. In addition, non-native AHL-analogs may provide significant benefits in their ability to stimulate quorum pathways without resulting increased virulence and pathogenicity.